Clark was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina and left high school at age 14 to attend the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted at Mary Baldwin College (now University) in Staunton, Virginia. Clark t
ransferred to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1997 with a BA in Philosophy. She was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. In 1999, she completed her Master of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School.
